Study Finds Michigan Union Construction Apprenticeship Programs Outperform Universities

Union apprenticeship programs in Michigan’s construction industry deliver more training hours, better diversity outcomes, and no student debt while delivering earnings for graduates that achieve near parity with comparable workers with four-year college degrees. Additionally, as the construction industry struggles with a historic labor shortage, union programs are vastly outperforming their nonunion peers in the production of new construction apprentices. The data was compiled in a new study by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute (MEPI) and the Project for Middle Class Renewal (PMCR) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  

To assess the state of construction workforce training in Michigan, MEPI and PMCR researchers utilized 2010-2020 data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Management Data System (RAPIDS). The researchers also used Current Population Survey data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to contrast the performance of union and nonunion apprenticeship programs in Michigan’s construction industry with comparable workers two- and four-year college degrees.